Firefighters survey the scene following Thursday's fire in Seaside Park -- right near a sign proclaiming the boardwalk open post-Sandy. Photo: Charles Mostoller/ZUMA Press

Mother Nature has been cruel to the residents of Seaside Heights and Seaside Park. Scarcely a year ago, Superstorm Sandy ripped through the area. Now a fire — abetted by freakishly strong winds — seemed determined, as Gov. Chris Christie suggested, to “finish the job that Sandy started.”

Even worse, authorities are now looking into the possibility this was not an accident. Initial reports suggested the fire started at Kohr’s Frozen Custard, a local icon. But as The Post reports elsewhere today, the owner says his workers saw flames shooting out from underneath the boardwalk planks, not inside the shop.

In the fire some 50 businesses were damaged or destroyed, at a cost of millions. Though no one was killed, many good people have just lost their livelihoods. And the timing must be particularly demoralizing, coming as it does just after people had finished making the repairs they needed because of Sandy.

Right now, authorities need to get to the bottom of this blaze — and find those responsible, if it was indeed arson. The next months will not be easy for this community. But if Sandy proved anything, it’s that these are tough folks who pick themselves up, dust themselves off and do what needs to be done. We wish them godspeed as they reclaim their lives and their communities — and we have every confidence they will raise up a boardwalk better and more beautiful than the one they had.